Dadri lynching: Political slugfect continues

Dadri/Lucknow: As tension simmered in Bishada where a man was lynched on Monday night over allegedly eating beef, Union Minister Mahesh Sharma today sought punishment for those guilty without 'victimising' the innocents, while tough talking AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi said the victim was killed because of his religious persuasion.

Four days after Bishada village on Delhi's outskirts in Uttar Pradesh was rocked by the brutal killing of Mohammed Iqlakh, it witnessed an unending parade of politicians, who sympathised with the victim's family and sought to cool frayed tempers as communal tension smouldered.

Sharma, also the local MP, persisted with his refrain that Iqlakh's bludgeoning to death by the lynch mob was an 'accident' which should not be given a communal colour and over which there should be no politics.

"It is a blot on our culture and such incidents do not have a place in a civilised society. If somebody says it was pre-planned, I don't agree with it. It is an accident and it should be probed by CBI or state and guilty should be punished. Innocents should not be victimised in the name of investigation," Sharma, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture said at Bishada where he consoled the bereaved family.

Owaisi, who too paid a visit to the distraught family, could not disagree more when he described the killing as 'a pre-planned murder', actuated by the victim's religious persuasion. The sharp-tongued Hyderabad MP attacked both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the state's Samajwadi Party government for the incident that has triggered a nation-wide outrage.